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Wednesday, June 15

Grandma's Wood Stove

I had someone ask in the comment section of the previous post "whatever became of the wood stove."

So many delicious foods were served straight from Grandma's wood stove. Bread pudding, cake doughnuts, meats, vegetables, soups and stews of all kinds. Buttermilk biscuits, clover leaf buns, homemade bread and so much more. Grandma was a fantastic cook and everything that was served at the table tasted so much better because of that wood stove.

At breakfast every morning, Grandma served two kinds of meat, fried potatoes, biscuits fruit. We were farmers and the men folk worked hard from dawn to dusk. They needed three full meals a day.

When Grandpa got a notion in his head to buy three farms and move to central Ontario, things changed. They did take the wood stove with them but after two years, they decided to divide the large house so my uncle and his family could live in the other half. At that time the wood stove had to go, as there was no place for it anymore. Grandma wasn't happy. She did have an electric stove by that time, but she much preferred to cook on the old wood stove.

Things never tasted quite as good coming from the electric stove and today I still miss the taste of the delicious food that came from that old wood stove.

By the time I was born, my Grandma's old cookstove was history-Gone with the proverbial wind, ya know. It was replaced by a nice gas stove that Grandma swore up and down prevented her from being able to bake the wonderful Swedish flat bread -called "Kaka" bread by those of Swedish ancestry here, even today. My late neighbor two doors over from my house claimed pretty much the same problem existed once she got rid of her old coal cookstove too but she worked on the problem, eventually figuring a way that she could bake that great bread in her electric stove. When I was growing up there were many, many homes throughout this village that still used a big old coal or wood cookstove for all their cooking needs but over time, most of them were totally removed in exchange for gas or electric but some folks, those with a great big kitchen or a back kitchen/porch, often kept the old cookstove for emergency usage as well as for a little old-fashioned decor too! (A great thing to have for people with a nice big old rocking chair and a set of cold feet as you could sit in that comfy rocker and put your cold feet into the oven and let them warm up -nice and toasty! One of my earliest memories is of my Dad's baby sister sitting in the rocker in front of the old cookstove with her feet warming in the oven of that big old stove. Aw, memories!)

I imagine my grandmother had a wood stove but I was too young to remember it. The first time I actually tasted anything cooked on a wood stove was when E brought me to visit his sister Florence on her farm when we started going out together. That was in 1975 and she refused to get rid of her wood stove. I'll never forget how tasty everything was, especially her bread! In the 1980's her husband bought her an electric stove but she barely ever used it, instead she kept using her wood stove:-) When we were there last October I was so sad to see that she had gotten rid of it but she had no choice, it had really gotten in bad shape.

I haven't forgotten that I wanted to call you! E decided to take 2 weeks of holidays so he's been around like a sore thumb! lol He's back at work on Monday so will call you next week for sure!! xoxo

Even though I'm only 43, I learned how to cook on a woodstove. I've often said that my mom was born 100 years too late and that shows in our cooking as well when I was growing up. Mom found an old wood cookstove for sale and her and Dad cleaned it up and installed it in our kitchen in our log house in the country. That's what I learned to cook on and never cooked on anything else until I grew up and left home. The food was wonderful and the experience was incredible!

Your Grandma was like mine. One of the worlds best cooks and when I came home from school I would always check out the bread warmer of the wood stove to see what treasure she had put in there for us to eat. My favorites were her fried pies. Peace

About Me

I am a 67 year old woman and have been married for 27 years. I have a grown daughter and two wonderful grandsons. I am a writer and my stories and articles have been published in both print and online venues. I am a proud member of American Christian Fiction Writers.